36-year-old Rene Redzepi is on top of the culinary world again after regaining top spot for his restaurant Noma in the World's 50 best restaurants. Yesterday he was in Gent to present his new book A Work in Progress which is part journal, part recipe book and a flick book. He gave an inspirational talk while reading parts of his journal which recounts the day-to-day life at Noma. I went thanks to our dear friends from Gent, Anna and Marteen of Villa Bardon. The stress to get there was probably worse than manning a station on a busy evening in a restaurant. The traffic to get out of Brussels was horrendous. Redzepi is one of few chefs who have managed to take food to a level of creativity that can inspire people. These chefs, like Adria, Bottura, Blumenthal and the Roca brothers have broken away from traditions while at the same time going back to the roots. They break taboos or preconceived ideas and perceptions. As he himself says, it would have been unimaginable 10 or 20 … [Read more...]